Automobile-steering-gear lock.



R. C. SHEPHERD.

AUTOMOBILE STEERING GEAR LOCK.

APPLICATION FILED APR.19,I9I5.

Patented Mar. 7, 1917 mw a.

. 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

R. C. SHEPHERD.

AUTOMOBILE SHERING GEAR LOCK.

APPLICATION HLED APR. 19, x915. f

Patented Mar. 27, 191' 2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

mmwsw aoana'rc. srtnPHEnn, or LOS CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALFantennas, T jCLINTON F. SHEPHERD, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

fiUTOMOBILE-STEERING-GEAR LOCK.

gggqygygg Specification of Letters ,Patent. Patented Mar, 27, 191*}, vApplication filed'April 19, 1915. Serial No. 22,227.

To allwltom it may concern: lock showing the key opening and its arfullyhereinafter described and pointed out- Be itknown that I, ROBERT C; acitizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles; in the county ofLos An eles and State of California, have invents a new and usefulAutomobile-Steering-Gear Look, of which the. followin'gis aspecification.

This invention relates to improvements in automobile locks and residesin the provision of simple and effective means for locking the steeringgear of an automobile against operation so that unauthorized, personswill be prevented from appropriating the automobile.

' One of-the objects of theinvention is to provide a lock of thecharacter described which may be easily attached to automobiles withoutnecessitating any material change in the construction thereof and whichmay be quickly operated.

Another object is to provide a lock of the character described that iscomparatively smalland may be located upon the steering mechanism insuch manner that .detection thereof will not be readily had and littleor no room is taken up. I The invention consists in certain novelfeatures of construction and combination, and arrangement of parts aswill be more in the claims. v

In the drawings: v V Figure 1' is a vertical sectional view of my lockshowing it in locked position and attached to steering gear;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig.3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of the lock in unlockedposition; I Fig. 4 is a detail side elevation of the gear lockingmechanism;

Flg. 5 is a vertical sectional view of amodified form of lock showing itattached to steering gear and'in locked position 5 Fig. 6 is afragmentary vertical sectlonal view. of the modified form of lockshowing it in unlocked position;

Fig. 7 is a side-detail vertical sectional view of the gear lockingelement and coopcrating parts of the modified form of lock;

and

.Fig. Sis a side elevationofpart of-the SHEPHERD,

'rangement relative ratus.

Briefly my lnventlon comprises means to to the steering appalock theplanetary or other gears of wellknown steering apparatus against movement so that turning of'the wheels of the automobile is prevented, andwhile'it is particularly designed for planetary steer- 1ng gearapparatus, it is tobe understoodthat it may be used in connection withgther steering gears to which it is applicaments 5-to an annular flange6 on the upper end of the tubing 2. The inner face of the annular sidewall of the casing 4 is provided with teeth forming an internal ear Theouter side of the case 4 is provided with screw threads 8 near its upperedge -and a flanged internally threaded cover cap 9 is turned upon thecase 4 upon the screw threads 8. I

The case 4 is provided with a central bearing 10 on its lower sidethrough which is journaled the post 3. The post 3 is provided at itsupper end with a flat circular head 11 which restsupon the be'aringlOand at its periphery engages the inner face of the side of the case 4 ata point below the internal gear 7. This head 11 is arranged to rotatefreely within the case 4 and centrally, supports a-steering gear drivepin on 12 whichis provided with a depend- I ing spindle 13, said spindlebeing rotatably journaled in an opening 14 formed in the upper end ofthe post 3.

Carried by the spindle 1 2 and projecting upwardly therefrom through anopening 15 formed in the cap 9 is a rod 16 which at its upper end isdesigned to be secured to the steering wheel 17.

vRot-atably journaled upon the head 11 are a plurahtyrof planetarypinions 18 which are equidistantly spaced .fro n one another "end of avertically locking member 19 that is located between the cap 9 and case4 and may be positioned within the case between any two of the pinions18. Only. the side of to the internal gear 7 need be toothed so thatsaid'internal gear andse cut will interlock. The segment 19 is xed tothe lower the segment next said plunger is mounted within a verticalopenin 21 formed through the cap 9, to one slde o the center thereof.The upper end of the opening 21 is enlarged to provide an annularshoulder 22 against which rests the lower end of a helical expansionspring 23. The spring 23 is mounted upon the plunger 20so that-lts upperend engages the head 24 of a finger piece 25, thus holding the plung'erand loekingmember or segment 19 in up position, free from the gears 18and 7. The

nger piece .25 is secured upon the upper end of the plunger by means ofa screw 26.

Additional locking means 27 is provided to hold the plunger 20 in upposition and said meanscomprises a ball 28 that is slidablymountedwithin a horizontal reeeses 27' formed in the cap 9 and which opens intothe vertical opening 21. A spring 30 is mounted in the recess betweenthe inner end thereof and the ball and forces said ball outwardly. 'Aball receiving recess 31 is formed in the plunger 20 in such positionthat it will receive the ball and lock the plunger when it is in upposition. This locking means 27 prevents accidental moving of theplunger into locking position but is arranged so that the ball 28 willrecede from locking position when pressure is brought to bear upon theplunger.

The cap 9 is provided with an enlarged ofi'set housing 32 which.TGCGlVGS suitable locking means 33. The locking means 33 includes a,rotatable element 34 in which is formed the keyhole 35. This element34.is

normally locked against rotation by suitable means, not shown, and atthe inner end thereof a locking dog or member 36 is pivoted. A leafspring 37 tends to hold said dog outwardly in engagement with theplunger 20 at all times, the housing 32 being communicated with theopening 21 for the plunger.

A notch 38 is formed in the plunger and is designed to receive the dog36 when the "plunger is forced downwardly into locking position, thuslocking the plunger against upward movement. When a suitable key,

the lower end of the do slidable plunger 20 and not shown, is insertedin the keyhole 35, the element 34 may be rotated and such rotation Wlllremove the dog 36 from the notch 38 and allow said plunger to springupwardly through the action of the spring 23.

In operation when it is desired to lock the steering gear the fingerpiece 25 is engaged and the plunger is forced downwardly so that thelocking member of segment 19 is brought into meshing engagement with theinternal gear 7, between two of the planetary pinions 18. When the notch38 is opposite 36, said dog will spring into the notch a lock theplunger and segment in looking position. The segment or member 19 issufficiently wide, as clearly shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, toprevent any appreciable movement of the steering gear in eitherdirection. To unlock the lOCklIlg means, a key, not shown, is

-inserted in the keyhole 35 and said member 34 is allowed to turn sothat the dog 36 is brought out of engagement with the notch 38.

Referring particularly to Figs. 5, 6 and 7, wherein I have illustrated amodified form of my invention, 39 designates steerin mechanism of thetype heretofore described and which includes a cap 40 which ispro-'vided with an offset housin 41 to receive locking means 42 that is simiar to the locking means 33. In this form the locking means 42 has arotatable element 43 on one end of which is rigidly secured a lockingfinger or member 44. Screws or other suitable fastening elements 45 areinserted through the finger member 44 and into the member 43. The finger44 extends into the opening for the plunger 46 and at its free end isforked and embraces the plunger, the free ends of said forked portion ofthe finger being rounded as at 47 and loosely engaged between pairs ofspaced lugs 48 and 49,

the plunger 46 and is of considerably less diameter than said plunger. Ahead 52 carried on the lower end of the guide member 5], slidablyengages the inner sides of the hollow plunger and supports an expansionspring 53 which is, mounted on the plunger and en ages the upper closedend thereof, also the ead 52. T1118 spring tends to hold the plunger andmember 50 in up position.

- and gears connecting the bodily rotatable T prevent the gears fromrotating bodily.

In operation when it is desired to lock the steering gear, a suitablekey, inserted through the keyhole of the lock 42, said keyhole being thesame as shown in Fig. 8, and the member 43 which is locked until the keyis inserted, may be turned so as to force the plunger. downwardly andspring the segment 50 into locking position. When the segment 50 is ingear locking position thekey, not shown, can be removed, inserted andturned to unlock the locking means and cannot be removed until turned tocause the lock to loc In practice I have found that the form of myinvention illustrated in the drawings and referred to in the thepreferred embodiment is the most efficient and practical, yet realizingthat the conditions concurrent with the adoption of my device willnecessarily vary, I desire to emphasize the \fact that various .minorchanges in construction, proportion and arrangement of parts may beresorted to when required without sacrificing any of the advantages ofmy invention appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an automobile steering as set forth in the gear lock,

the combination with steering gear includinga rotary steering post, asteering wheel and gears connecting the'post and wheel, of

means to hold said gears against operation.

2.'In an automobile steering gear lock,

' the combination with steering gear includ-' ing a rotary steeringpost, a steering wheel post and wheel, of means to hold said gearsagainst operation,

and means to lock said means in gear-holding position. I

3. In an automobile, steering gear lock, the combination with steeringgear including a rotary post, a steering wheel, a drive pinion operated.by the wheel, rotatable and gears carried by the-post and meshing withthe pinion, and means to 4. Inan automobile steering gear lock, thecombination with steering gear including a rotary post, a steeringwheel, a drive -p1I11OI1 operated by the wheel, rotatable and bodilyrotatable gears carried by the post and meshing with the pinion, meansto preventthe gears from rotating bodily, and means to lock said gearlocking means in locked position. v

5. In an automobile steering gear lock,

the combination with steering gear including a rotary post, a steeringwheel, a drive pinion operated by the wheel, rotatable and bodilyrotatable gears carried by the post and meshing with the pinion, and astationary gear meshing with the bodily rotatable gears, of meansadapted to be positioned between the bodilyv rotatable gears andinterlocking with the stationary gear to lock said not shown, is

above description as bodily and means to lock said means in gear lockingposition.

7. The combination with steering gear including a rotary steering post,a" wheel, a

stationary gear, a drive pinion operated by the wheel, rotatable andbodily rotatable gears meshing with the stationary gear and pinion, agear locking member, and means to position said gear locking member inlooking cooperation with the stationary gear and in the path oftravel'of said bodily rotatable gears.

8. The combination with steering gear including a rotatable steeringpost, a wheel, a stationary gear, a drive pinion operated by the. wheel,rotatable and bodily 'rotatable gears meshing with the stationary gearand pinion, a gear locking member, means to o s tion said gear lockingmember in locking.

cooperation with the stationary gear and in the path of travel of gears,and means to lock locking position.

9. The combination with steering gear insaid bodily rotatablesaid meansin gear.

eluding a rotatable steering post, a wheel,

a stationary gear, a drive pmion operated by the wheel, rotatable andbodily-rotatable gears meshing with the stationary gear and 1nion a earlockin member means to.

position said gear locking member in locking cooperation with thestationary gear and in the path of travel of said bodily rotatablegears, means to lock said means in gear looking position, and means tomove said lockmg member out of locking position when said locking meansis unlocked.

10. The combination with steering gear including'a steering post, asteering wheel and gears connecting the post and wheel, of a lockingmember'to prevent operation of said gears, means to normally hold saidlooking member in out-of-the-way position, means to move'said lockingmember into locking position, and locking means to lock and unlock saidlocking member in and from looking position.

11. The combination with steering1 gear including a rotary post, asteering w eel, a.

drive pinion operated by the wheel, rotatable and bodily rotatable gearscarried by the post and meshing with the pinion, an internal stationarygear meshing with said bodily rotatable gears, said bodily rotatablegears being spaced from one another, of a locking member having teethfor locking. co-

operation with the internal stationary gear and adapted to be movedbetween the bodily rotatable gears to prevent them from being rotatedbodily, means to normally hold said member in up position, means to movesaid member into locking position.

12. The combination with steering gear including a rotary post, asteering Wheel, a drive pinion operated by the wheel, rotatable andbodily rotatable gears carried by the post and meshing with the pinion,an internal stationary gear meshing with 'said bodily rotatable gears,said bodily rotatable gears being spaced from one another, of a lockingmember having teeth for locking cooperation with the internal stationarygear and adapted to be moved between the bodily rotatable gears toprevent them from being rotated bodily, means to normally hold saidmember in up position, means to move said member intovlocking position,and means to lock said member in locking position.

13. In a device of the class described, the combination with a circularcasing provided on its interior curved surface with gear teeth and aseries of traveling gears for co6peration therewith; of a block providedwith teeth for engagement with the teeth of said casing and adapted toslide into and out of engagement therewith, means for slidin r saidblock, and means for holding said blocli locked in engagement with saidteeth, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Los Angeles,California, this 7th day of April, 1915.

ROBERT C. SHEPHERD.

In presence of CHAS. J. CHUNN, ANNA F. SCHMIDTBAUER.

